Python 3.4 and Jessie

I found another resource for learning about machine learning using Python called "Python Machine Learning" by Sebastian Raschka. As it turns out, the publisher is currently having a sale, and I bought this 450 ebook for only $5. I consider that a big win.

One of the issues that I immediately ran into was that the book uses code for Python 3.4.3 or later, and I only have Python 3.2. After trying various forms of apt-get to download it, I found some instructions on the internet that suggested upgrade Raspbian to Jessie, and that would also have Python 3.4 installed on it. I almost did that, but kept on looking because I don't want my first attempt to be to completely install a brand new system. It turns out that there is no package for it, but I can download and compile it myself. Here's the webpage that I used to get the instructions: http://depado.markdownblog.com/2015-03-12-short-tutorial-raspbian-python3-4-rpi-gpio

This turned out to be a pretty long process. Fortunately, I had a book I could read and some videos I could watch while it was happening. The installation took about an hour and 15 minutes. But I didn't have any time to do anything from there because it had gotten somewhat late.